A Weekend To Remember... San Diego

Did this on my run on the beach... :)

This was a church held on the beach we saw just before we left... so cool!

I was so excited that the water came right when I took this! How neat does this look?!

For little Chloe... coming in September 2012!!

This is my shadow... :)

The view I had while jogging on the beach

The house we think Aunt Susie should buy in Coronado! How AMAZING is this! And it overlooks the water too!

Cafe 1134... a favorite place for our friends Jackie and Christian and Zach and I to go while in Coronado... SO FUN!

Fish tacos from Wahoo's... yum!

The sunset in San Diego... wow

Friday morning, this is what I saw at about 6:30am... if you look really hard, you can see little black dots in the water... all surfers! I pictured that this is where Zach would've been :)

Can you even belive this view?! Gorgeous!

This guy just rode his bike over here, with a newspaper, and read the paper. Just another leizurely Friday morning!

My sisters Sarah, Julie, and I had a FANTASTIC time in San Diego two weekends ago! Let me back up a bit. Sarah is the planner sister- she's always up for an event- anything we can make into fun, let's do it! She is so much fun, and I love hearing what she's working on... usually some kind of really cute and amazing looking project for her house, sewing curtains for her windows, making a backboard for my sweet nephew Dallas' bed, printing a giant 4 foot x 3 foot picture for above her bed (many great ideas she finds on Pinterest!).... and by the way, all of her projects seriously look professionally done. Or she's putting together an event for a friend whether it's a shower or a retirement party or even a wedding. She just has a knack for these kinds of things. She can make anything fun, festive, incredibly decorated, and always themed. :) Or she's emailing me about a great deal she found for us all to go to Disneyland or the one that we ended up really doing, San Diego!

She saw that Joyce Meyer was coming to San Diego and that tickets were free. Plus, the dates were around the same time as her birthday, so she emailed me and Julie, and said let's do this! So we totally did, and I'm SO glad we did! I think it was the first annual trip we will be taking for sure.

It has been years since the three of us (alone, without our husbands) have been together. We drove up there, and stayed in The Beach Cottages. LOVED them! There was 2 queen beds, a big couch bed, a kitchen, and a huge dining room table (aka Nutsy table as far as we were concerned :)). There was a grocery store right across the street, so we got food for breakfasts to save money, and of course late night snacky foods. :) It was super reasonable as far as pricing went too, so we did well!

We had fish tacos of course from 2 different places, and even pizza and wine on the beach. Funny- it was FREEZING the night we did it, but if you can guess... Sarah made us do it! Well, Julie too- they were total troopers, because I was all about finding a warmer place to eat that dinner. But they said we would wish we did, and they were right. It was fun- eating pizza while our teeth chattered, just to say we did it. Fun memories for sure.

We did go to one session of the Joyce Meyer conference, and we enjoyed it. We really loved the worship, and I have to say that I was tearing up looking to my right and seeing both my sisters worshipping Jesus... it was a memory and a sight I hope to never forget. That in and of itself made the whole trip worth taking. It was REALLY neat. Joyce talked about the importance of being selfless and our tendencies to only think of ourselves, which is always a welcome topic. It's something I could stand to be reminded about each day! It took us an hour to get out of the parking structure though, which was a bit of a bummer.

I took 2 great walk/jogs right by the beach, and even one right on the beach! Amazing scenery. Breath taking for sure! Wow, I just pictured our family living there and how neat it would be to come play in the sand, for Zach to get to surf all the time and teach the kids how to surf, and just to live near the water. But I know that's not reality- just a dream! It's way too expensive to live there for sure. :)

We checked out Coronado Island, and did a little walking around the downtown area- but it was totally raining, and you really can't appreciate Coronado for it's true striking beauty when it's raining. But we did check out some incredble houses there- they are just beautiful. The kind that make you just keep saying "wow, look at that one!" over and over... Oh, and we made an accidental stop at the Navy Base too after making a wrong turn (which we realized later that Clay our cousin who is training to be swick- a special warfare combatant... GO CLAY! was already there- he'd just arrived to begin his 2 years of training there). Anways, I just have a special place in my heart for Coronado. Zach and I have been there twice with our dear friends, and it's just one of the best places ever, in my opinion!

We also took a day and shopped around in La Jolla. Wow, what a beautiful place! We thought it was so cool that you'd be driving, and then make a turn and be just stunned by the beauty of seeing the ocean right by the street... pretty amazing. We found some great deals, and had fun shopping together. We found a few cute baby botiques too for Julie, mommy to be in September!, and she got a few really cute things for baby GIRL! They're going to name her Chloe... isn't that the cutest name?! I think it's precious, and we can't wait to meet her!

It was fun to see Julie pregnant too- all her cravings, aches and pains, etc that go along with being pregnant. Brings back memories! Oh the joys... :) But really they are! She's so cute too, and getting a baby bump! Pretty soon both my sisters will be mommies. I love how we're all nearing the same seasons of life.... married with kids. It's fun! And the  fact that our husbands all get along so well, and have fun together is even better! I'm defintely grateful. I love my sisters, and am SO thankful that we had this weekend together! They're both just awesome, unique, and super special to me.

Anyways, it'll be really fun to have a girl cousin, after all these boys. Teda has waited very patiently, and she just can't wait to have a girl around!

I think one of the coolest things I thought while I was there was that at one point someone asked what time it was. I said I didn't know, and then stopped to get super excited that I didn't NEED to know! It was so amazing to be somewhere and not have an agenda, not need to be anywhere, and to just relax!

One more really cool part about this trip is that Zach had the kids while I was gone. I left Thursday morning, and came back Sunday afternoon. He had to work Thursday, so he got them from my mom's Thursday afternoon, took of Friday from work, and then had them for the weekend. He took them to the library, to the gym twice, to a birthday party, to the store, and to church. All four kids, in and out of the car, needing to be places on time, etc. At one point on Friday, he called me and asked, "What do you do with the little two boys after taking Dane and Teda to school... in between waiting to pick up Dane again at 10:45?" I LOVED that he was wondering that! We live a little far to go home, and that's something I'm always trying to figure out, how to maximize our time. So they went to the library.

Then on Saturday night, he called and said that he was so thankful that I went, and that I need to make this a regular thing so that he can know how this feels. He was so thankful for all that I do as a mom, that I'm almost fully responsible for their wellbeing- what they eat, do, etc... and then he said, you do all this, and all I have to do is go to work! He said when he laid Deklan down for bed, it ran though his mind, "did I feed him enough? what did he even eat today?" He said that's probably a thought that I have often... and he's right! It was so sweet, and it really made me feel good to hear such high compliments. So maybe I will make this an annual trip, to get away and be refreshed... and for Zach to take on the kids, and be thankful that we're a team! I'm for sure grateful that we're a team. We make a great one! And Zach is amazing, I'm so thankful to have him as a husband to me and a father to our kids. He truly is incredible, and I couldn't imagine life any other way!

I'm sad to say though, that we were terrible at taking pictures of this trip. I have a few of scenery, but no good ones of my sisters and I. I'm sad about that! But next time we'll take lots!